THE
CLOWN THAT KILLEDTHE HORRIFYING LEGACY OF JOHN
WAYNE GACY &
THE SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS OF HIS CRIMES

To everyone who met him, John Wayne Gacy seemed a
likable and affable man. He was widely respected in the community,
charming and easy to get along with. He was a good Catholic and sharp
businessman who, when not running his construction company was active in
the Jaycees and was also a Democratic Party precinct captain, when he had
his photo taken with then First Lady, Rosalynn Carter. He also spent much
of his free time hosting elaborate street parties for his friends and
neighbors, serving in community groups and entertaining children as "Pogo
the Clown". He was a generous, hard working, friendly, devoted family man,
everyone knew that -- but that was the side of John Wayne Gacy that he
allowed people to see.

Underneath the smiling mask of the clown was the face of
depraved fiend.

John Wayne Gacy was a
born on St. Patrick’s Day 1942 at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago. Johnny
was the second of three children. His older sister Joanne had preceded him
by two years and two years after his birth came that of sister Karen.

John Wayne Gacy -- An outwardly normal
man whose depravity spun out of control (UPI)

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The Gacy children were raised as Catholics and all three
attended Catholic schools where they lived on the north side. Growing up, Gacy
was a quiet boy who worked odd jobs for spending money, like newspaper routes
and bagging groceries, and busied himself with Boy Scout activities. He was
never a particularly popular boy but he was well-liked by his teachers,
co-workers and friends from school and the Boy Scouts. He seemed to have a
normal childhood, except for his relationship with his father and a series of
health problems that he developed.

When Gacy was 11, he was playing on a swing set and was hit
in the head with one of the swings. The accident caused a blood clot in his
brain that was not discovered until he was 16. Between the time of the
accident and the diagnosis, Gacy suffered from blackouts that were caused by
the clot. They were finally treated with medication. At 17, he was also
diagnosed with a heart ailment that he was hospitalized for several times
during his life. He complained frequently about it over the years but no one
could ever find a cause for the pain that he claimed to be suffering. In his
late teens, he began to experience problems with his father, although his
relationship with his mother and sisters remained strong. His father was an
alcoholic who physically abused his wife and berated his children.

His family problems extended out into his schoolwork and
after attending four high schools during his senior year and never graduating,
Gacy dropped out and left home for Las Vegas. He worked part time as a janitor
in a funeral home and saved his money to buy a ticket back to Chicago. Lonely
and depressed, he spent three months trying to get the money together. His
mother and sisters were thrilled to see him when he returned.

After his return, Gacy enrolled in business college and
eventually graduated. While in school, he gained a real talent for
salesmanship and he put these talents to work in a job with the Nunn-Bush Shoe
Company. He excelled as a management trainee and he was soon transferred to a
men’s clothing outlet in Springfield, Illinois. Soon after his move, Gacy’s
health took a turn for the worse. He gained a great deal of weight and began
to suffer more from his mysterious heart ailment. He was hospitalized and soon
after getting out, was back in the hospital again, this time with back
problems.

While living in Springfield, Gacy became involved in
several organizations that served the community, including the Jaycees, to
which Gacy devoted most of his efforts and was eventually a vice-president and
named "Man of the Year". Many who knew Gacy considered him to be ambitious and
working to make a name for himself in the community. In September 1964, Gacy
met and married a co-worker named Marlynn Myers, whose parents owned a number
of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Iowa. Gacy’s new father-in-law
offered him a position with the company and soon the newlyweds were moving to
Iowa. Life seemed to hold great promise for Gacy and there was no
foreshadowing of the horrific events to come.

Gacy began learning the restaurant business from the ground
up, working 12 to 14 hours each day. He was enthusiastic and eager to learn
and hoped to take over the franchises one day. When not working, he was active
with the Waterloo, Iowa Jaycees. He worked tirelessly performing volunteer
work and he made many friends. Marlynn gave birth to a son shortly after they
moved to Iowa and not long after, added a daughter to the happy family. They
seemed to have the picture perfect life -- a loving and healthy family, a good
job, a house in the suburbs -- and it seemed almost too good to be true. And
it was…

Rumors were starting to spread around town, and among
Jaycees members, about Gacy’s sexual preferences. No one could help but notice
that young boys always seemed to be in his presence. Stories spread that he
had made passes at some of the young men who worked in the restaurants but
those close to him refused to believe it -- until the rumors became truth. In
May 1968, a grand jury in Black Hawk County indicted Gacy for committing an
act of sodomy with a teenaged boy named Mark Miller. The boy told the courts
that Gacy had tricked him into being tied up while visiting Gacy’s home and he
had violently raped him. Gacy denied the charges but did say that Miller
willingly had sex with him in order to earn extra money. Four months later,
more charges were filed against Gacy. This time, he was charged with hiring an
18 year-old boy named Dwight Andersson to beat up Mark Miller. Andersson
informed the officers who arrested him for the assault that Gacy had hired him
to attack the other boy.

A judge ordered Gacy to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to
see if he was mentally competent to stand trial. He was found to be competent
but psychiatrists stated that he was an antisocial personality who would
likely not benefit from any known medical treatment. Soon after the report was
submitted, Gacy entered a guilty plea to the sodomy charge. He received ten
years at the Iowa State Reformatory, the maximum time for the offence, and
entered prison for the first time at the age of 26. Shortly after he went to
prison, his wife divorced him on the grounds that he had violated their
wedding vows.

Gacy adhered to all of the rules in prison and stayed out
of trouble. Described as a model prisoner, he was paroled after only 18
months. On June 18, 1970, he left his cell and made his way back to Chicago.
He moved in with his mother and obtained work as a chef in a city restaurant,
settling into the position and trying to get his life back on track after
serving time.

Gacy lived with his mother for four months and then decided
to move out on his own. She helped him to obtain a new house at 8213 West
Summerdale Avenue in the Norwood Park Township. Gacy owned one-half of the
house and his mother and sisters owned the other. He was very happy with his
new, two-bedroom ranch house. It was located in a clean, quiet neighborhood
and he quickly went about making friends with his neighbors, Edward and Lilla
Grexa, who had lived in the neighborhood since it had been built. Within seven
months of moving in next door, Gacy was spending Christmas with the Grexa’s.
They became close friends and often gathered for drinks and card games. The
Grexa’s had no idea of Gacy’s criminal past -- or his most recent run-in with
the law.

Just a month before the Grexa’s had invited Gacy over for
Christmas dinner, he had been charged with disorderly conduct for forcing a
young boy, whom he had picked up at the bus station, to perform sexual acts on
him. He managed to slip through the system when the charges against him were
dropped, thanks to the fact that his accuser never showed up in court.

In June 1972, Gacy married Carole Hoff, a newly divorced
mother of two daughters. Gacy romanced her when most vulnerable and she fell
for his charm and generosity. She knew about his time in prison but believed
that he had changed his life for the better. Carole and her daughters soon
settled into Gacy’s home and forged a close relationship with the Grexa’s. The
older couple was often invited over to the Gacy’s house for elaborate parties
and cook-outs. However, they were often bothered by the horrible stench that
often wafted throughout the house. Lillie Grexa was convinced that an animal
had died beneath the floorboards of the place and she urged Gacy to do
something about it. He blamed the odor on a moisture buildup in the crawlspace
under the house though -- refusing to reveal the true, and much more sinister,
cause for the smell. He would keep this secret for years to come.

In 1974, Gacy started a contracting business called
Painting, Decorating and Maintenance or PDM Contractors, Inc. He hired a
number of teenaged boys to work for him, explaining to friends that hiring
young men would keep his payroll costs low. In truth, Gacy’s desires were
starting to get out of control and he was having trouble hiding his true
nature from those closest to him, especially his wife.

By 1975, Carole and Gacy had drifted apart. Their sex life
had ended and Gacy’s moods became more and more unpredictable, ranging from
jovial to an uncontrollable rage that would have him throwing furniture. He
had become an insomniac and his lack of sleep seemed to make his mood swings
even worse. And if his personality changes were not enough, his choice of
reading material worried her even more. Carole had started to find magazines
with naked men and boys in them around the house and when confronted, Gacy
casually admitted they were his. He even confessed that he preferred young men
to women. Naturally, this was the last straw for Carole and she soon filed for
divorce. It became final on March 2, 1976.

Gacy dismissed his marital problems and refused to let them
hamper his need for recognition and success. To most people, Gacy was still
the outgoing and hardworking man that he always had been. So many people had
experienced divorces that no one thought a thing about it. Gacy made up for
any lingering questions about him with his natural talent for persuading
others to his ideas and thoughts and he always came up with creative ways to
get himself noticed. It was not long before he gained the attention of Robert
F. Matwick, the Democratic township committeeman for Norwood Park. As a free
service to the committeeman, Gacy volunteered himself and his employees to
clean up and repair Democratic Party headquarters. Unaware of the contractor’s
past and impressed by his sense of duty and dedication to the community,
Matwick nominated Gacy to the street lighting commission. In 1975, Gacy became
the secretary treasurer but his political career was short-lived -- no matter
how he thought he was hiding it, rumors again began to circulate about Gacy’s
interest in young boys.

One of the rumors stemmed from an actual incident that took
place during the time that Gacy was working on the Democratic headquarters.
One of the teenagers who worked on the project was 16 year-old Tony Antonucci.
According to the boy, Gacy made sexual advances toward him but backed off when
Antonucci threatened to hit him with a chair. Gacy recovered his composure and
made a joke out of it. Several weeks later, while visiting Gacy’s home, Gacy
again approached Antonucci. He tricked the young man into a pair of handcuffs
and then tried to undress him. Antonucci had made sure that he was loosely
cuffed though and when he slipped free, he wrestled Gacy to the ground and
cuffed the older man instead. He eventually let him go when Gacy promised not
to bother him again. That was the last time that Gacy ever made advances
toward Antonucci and the boy remained working for the contracting company for
almost a year after the incident. Tony Antonucci would not realize how lucky
he had been that day. Others would not fare as well.

Johnny Butkovich, 17, began doing remodeling work for
Gacy’s company in an effort to raise money for his racing car. He enjoyed the
position, it paid well, and he maintained a good working relationship with
Gacy until one pay period when Gacy refused to pay Johnny for two weeks of
work. This was something that Gacy often did in order to save money. Angered
that Gacy had withheld his pay, Johnny went over to his employer’s house with
two friends to collect what was rightfully his. When he confronted him, Gacy
refused to pay and a loud argument erupted. Finally, he realized there was
little that he could do and Johnny and his friends left. Butkovich dropped off
his friends at home and drove off -- never to be seen again.

Michael Bonnin, 17, enjoyed working with his hands,
especially carpentry and woodworking, and often had several different projects
going at the same time. In June 1976, he had almost completed restoring an
antique jukebox -- but the job was never finished. When on his way to catch a
train to meet his stepfather’s brother, he vanished.

Billy Carroll, 16, was a long time troublemaker who had
first been in trouble with the authorities at the age of 9. Two years later,
he was caught with a gun and he spent most of his life on the streets of
Chicago, making money by arranging meetings between teenaged boys and adult
men for a commission. Although he came from a very different background that
Michael Bonnin and Johnny Butkovich, they all three had one thing in common --
John Wayne Gacy. Like the others Carroll also disappeared suddenly. He left
home on June 13, 1976 and was never seen alive again.

Gregory Godzik, 17, started working for PDM Contractors in
order to finance parts for his 1966 Pontiac. He considered it an eyesore but
it was a consuming hobby for him. The work that he did for Gacy paid well and
he liked it a lot. On December 12, 1976, Gregory dropped his date, a girl he
had had a crush on for awhile, at her house and drove off towards home. The
following day, the police found Gregory’s Pontiac but the boy was missing.

On January 20, 1977, John Szyc, 19, also vanished. He had
driven off in his 1971 Plymouth Satellite and was never seen alive again.
Interestingly, a short time after Szyc disappeared, another teenager was
picked up by police in a 1971 Plymouth Satellite while trying to leave a gas
station without paying. The boy said that the man he lived with could explain
the situation -- John Wayne Gacy. He told the officers that John Szyc had sold
him the car some time earlier. The police never checked the title, which had
been signed 18 days after John’s disappearance. Szyc had not worked for PDM
Contractors but he was acquainted with Gregory Godzik, Johnny Butkovich and
fatally, John Wayne Gacy.

On September 15, 1977, Robert Gilroy, 18, also disappeared.
Gilroy was an avid outdoorsman and on that date, was supposed to catch a bus
to meet friends for horseback riding. When he never showed up, his father, a
Chicago police sergeant, immediately began searching for the boy. A full scale
investigation was launched but Robert was nowhere to be found.

More than a year later, another young man named Robert
Piest would vanish as well. The investigation into his disappearance would
lead not only to the discovery of his body but the bodies of Butkovich,
Bonnin, Carroll, Szyc, Gilroy and 27 other young men who suffered similar
fates. These discoveries would horrify not only Chicago, but all of America.

Before Robert disappeared though, a weird event would occur
that would later turn out to be a chilling prediction of events to come -- or
rather a stunning revelation of events that had already occurred. At a
pre-Christmas party that was held on December 2, 1978, a well-known local
psychic known as Florece (Florence Branson) had been hired to provide cards
readings for the guests. The party was held at the home of a contractor
associate of Gacy’s and Gacy was one of the many in attendance.

The evening was almost over when it came time for Gacy to
have his fortune told. Up until this point, the party and the readings had
been going well and everyone was having a great time, including the psychic,
and then Gacy approached her for his reading. As soon as he spoke to her,
Florece later reported that she sensed something was very wrong with the man.
She also said that she became physically ill when she laid out his cards. She
was unable to discern any details but knew there was an evil hiding below the
surface of this man. She bluffed her way through the reading, much too
frightened to say anything to Gacy.

At the end of the evening, she felt compelled to speak to
the hostess about her horrific impressions of Gacy. She told what she had
sensed and added that she was afraid of him and that Gacy was "perverted and
violent."

The hostess refused to hear such things as "John" had been
a family friend for several years. Florece didn’t argue with her but was not
surprised several weeks later when the story of Gacy and his murderous crime
spree made the papers.

Gacy’s web of secrets began to unravel with the vanishing
of a young boy named Robert Piest. Robert, 15, disappeared mysteriously just
outside the doors of the pharmacy where he worked. His mother, who had come to
pick him up after his shift, was waiting outside for him when he vanished. He
had told her that he would be back in just a minute because he was going to
talk to a contractor who had offered him a job -- but he never returned. She
began to get worried but as more time passed, her worry turned to terror. She
searched the pharmacy and looked outside but Robert was nowhere to be seen.
Finally, three hours after his disappearance, the Des Plaines police were
notified. Lieutenant Joseph Kozenczak led the investigation.

The first lead to follow was the most obvious one and
officers quickly obtained the name of the contractor who had offered Robert
the job. Kozenczak went straight to Gacy’s home and when the Gacy came to the
door, he told him about the missing boy. He also asked him to accompany him to
the police station for some questions. Gacy refused. He explained that there
had been a recent death in his family and that he had to attend to some
telephone calls but he agreed to come down later. Several hours later, Gacy
arrived and gave a statement to the police. He said that he knew nothing about
the disappearance and was allowed to leave with no further questioning.

Something about Gacy did not sit right with Kozenczak
though and he decided to do a background check on him. He was stunned when he
discovered that Gacy had earlier done time for sodomy with a teenaged boy. He
quickly obtained a search warrant for Gacy’s house and on December 13, 1978, a
legion of police officers entered the house on Summerdale Avenue. Gacy was not
at home at the time.

Items found during the search would lead to the discovery
of Gacy’s dark side. Some of them items included a box containing two drivers
licenses and several rings, including one that was engraved with Maine West
High School class of 1975 and the initials J.A.S.; a box containing marijuana
and pills like amyl nitrate; a stained section of rug; a number of books with
homosexual and child pornography themes; a pair of handcuffs; police badges;
sexual devices; a hypodermic needle and small brown bottle; clothing that was
too small for Gacy; nylon rope; and other items. The police also confiscated
three automobiles that belonged to Gacy, including a 1978 Chevrolet truck with
a snow plow attached and the name "PDM Contractors" on the side, a van with "PDM
Contractors" also painted on the side and a 1979 Oldsmobile Delta 88. In the
trunk of the car were pieces of hair that were later matched to Robert Piest.

As the investigation continued, the police entered the
crawl space under Gacy’s home. They were discouraged by the rancid odor but
believed it to be sewage. The earth in the crawl space had been sprinkled with
lime but appeared to be untouched. They left the narrow space and returned to
police headquarters to run tests on the evidence they had obtained.

Gacy was again called to headquarters and was told about
the evidence that had been removed from his house. Enraged, he immediately
contacted his attorney, who also told him not to sign the Miranda waiver that
was presented to him by detectives. The police had nothing to arrest him on
and eventually had to release him after more questioning about the Piest
disappearance. They placed him under 24-hour surveillance but this was the
best they could do.

In the days that followed, friends were called into the
station and were also questioned. The detectives were unable to get any
information from Gacy’s friends that connected him to Robert Piest and all of
them insisted that Gacy simply was not capable of murder. Gacy had told his
friends earlier that the police were trying to charge him with murder but that
he had nothing to do with it.

In the midst of the investigation, one of these same
friends was asked by Gacy to stop by his house and to check on his dog, making
sure that the animal had enough food and water. Gacy said that he didn’t want
to go there because the police were harassing him and trying to pin the crime
on him. The friend agreed, borrowed a house key from Gacy and went over to
8213 West Summerdale. Nervous about being seen going to Gacy’s house, even
though at this point, he was sure that his friend had nothing to do with any
criminal activities, he decided to go around to the back door instead.

He put the key into the door lock and just as he began to
turn it, he heard what sounded like a group of people moaning and crying
inside of the house. The groans were so chilling that he immediately closed
the door, re-locked it and left. He hurried away from the house and when he
returned to the site where Gacy was working, he lied to him and told him that
everything in the house was fine, including his dog.

There is no way to know if the sounds the man heard in the
house were natural or supernatural. It’s possible that one of Gacy’s victims
was still alive and that his eerie cries sounded like a chorus of moans to the
already unnerved friend, but this seems unlikely as by this time, Gacy had
begun disposing of the bodies of his victims in locations outside of his home.
It seems more likely that, if this account is true, that the friend may have
actually heard the voices of victims whose deaths were yet to be avenged.
Could the spirits of some of Gacy’s victims have lingered behind in the house
-- or at least could some sort of supernatural energy have been pressed on the
atmosphere of a place where such horrid things had occurred?

The investigation continued and the police became
increasingly discouraged by their attempts to gather information from Gacy’s
friends and acquaintances. Finally, frustrated by the lack of evidence
connecting Gacy to the Piest disappearance, the police decided to book him on
possession of marijuana.

While Gacy was being charged with possession, the police
lab and investigators were coming up with critical evidence against Gacy from
the items taken from his home. One of the rings found in Gacy’s house belonged
to another teenager who had disappeared about a year earlier -- John Szyc.
They also discovered that three former employees of Gacy’s had also
disappeared. Furthermore, a receipt for a roll of film that was found in
Gacy’s home had belonged to a co-worked of Robert Piest and he had given it to
Robert on the day of the boy’s disappearance. With this new information, the
investigators suddenly began to realize the enormity of the case that was
starting to unfold.

Detectives and crime lab technicians returned to Gacy’s
house again. With everything starting to crumble around him, Gacy finally
confessed to the police that he had killed someone but that it had been in
self defense. He said that he was frightened and had buried the body under his
garage. He told the police where they could find the body and investigators
marked the gravesite in the garage but did not immediately begin digging. They
decided to search the crawl space first -- and minutes after starting to dig,
they found the remains of the first corpse.

That evening, Dr. Robert Stein, the Cook County Medical
Examiner, was called into help with the investigation. He began to organize
the search by marking off areas of earth in sections, as would be done with an
archaeological site. The excavation of a decomposing body has to be carried
out in a meticulous manner in order to preserve the integrity of the evidence
and so throughout the night and into the days that followed, the digging
progressed under the medical examiner’s watchful eye.

On Friday, December 22, 1978, detectives confronted Gacy
with the news that digging was being done under his house. With this, the
monster finally broke down. He admitted to the police that he had killed at
least 30 people and that most of their remains were buried beneath the house.
The first murder took placed in January 1972 and the second in Jaunary 1974,
about a year and a half after he was married. He explained that his lured his
victims into being handcuffed and then he would sexually assault them. To
muffle their screams, Gacy stuffed a sock or their underwear into their mouths
and would often kill them by placing a rope or board against their throats as
he raped them. He also admitted to sometimes keeping the corpses under his bed
or in his attic for hours or days before burying them in the crawl space.

Meanwhile, the police discovered two bodies during the
first day of digging. One of these was John Butkovich, who was found under the
garage, and the other was in the crawl space. As the days passed, the body
count grew higher. Some of the victims were found with their underwear still
lodged in their throats and others were buried so close together that
investigators believed they had been killed, or at least buried, at the same
time.

By December 28, the police had removed a total of 27 bodies
from Gacy’s house. Another body had also been found weeks earlier, not in the
crawl space but in the Des Plaines River. The naked corpse of Frank Wayne
"Dale" Landingin had been found in the water but at the time, the police were
not yet aware of Gacy and his crimes. It would not be until his drivers
license was found in Gacy’s house that he could be connected to the young
man’s murder. And he would not be the only victim to be found in the river…

Also on December 28, the body of James Mazzara was removed
from the Des Plaines River. His underwear was found stuffed down his throat,
linking him to the other victims. Gacy told the police that he had started
disposing of bodies in the river because he was running out of room in his
crawl space and because all of the digging was bothering his chronic back
problem. Mazzara was the 29th victim to be found -- but was still not the
last.

Much to the horror of the neighbors, the police were still
excavating Gacy’s property at the end of February. They had gutted the house
but had found no more bodies in the crawl space. Bad winter weather had kept
them from resuming the search but they believed there were still bodies to be
found. While workmen began breaking up the concrete of Gacy’s patio, another
horrific discovery was made. They found the body of a man, still in good
condition, preserved in the concrete. The following week, another body was
found.

The 31st victim to be linked to Gacy was found in the
Illinois River. Investigators were able to learn his identity thanks to a
tattoo on his arm, which friends of the victim’s father recognized while
reading a newspaper article about the grim discovery. The victim’s name was
Timothy O’Rourke and he was believed to have been acquainted with Gacy.

Around the time that O’Rourke was discovered and pulled
from the river, another body was found on Gacy’s property, this time beneath
his recreation room. It was the last body to be found on the property and soon
after, the house was destroyed and reduced to rubble.

Although the death toll had now risen to 32, the body of
Robert Piest was still missing. Tragically, his remains were discovered in the
Illinois River in April 1979. The body had been lodged somewhere in the river
but strong winds had worked it loose and carried it to the locks at Dresden
Dam, where it was finally discovered. An autopsy report showed that Robert had
been strangled by paper towels being shoved down his throat.

Police investigators worked hard to identify Gacy’s
victims, using dental records and other clues, and eventually, all but nine of
the young men were identified. A mass burial was held for these unknown
victims on June 8, 1981. And while the investigation had ended, Gacy’s trial
was just beginning.

John Wayne Gacy’s murder trial began on February 6, 1980 at
the Cook County Criminal Courts Building in downtown Chicago. Jury members,
five women and seven men, listened closely as prosecutor Bob Egan outlined the
case for them, detailing the short years of Robert Piest’s life, his gruesome
death and how Gacy was also responsible for the murders of at least 32 other
young men. He told them about the investigation that led to the horrible
discoveries under Gacy’s house and also noted that Gacy’s actions had been
carefully planned and were rational and premeditated. He knew that the defense
would work to make Gacy appear insane and Egan needed to counter this as much
as possible. When he finished, it was obvious that Egan’s statement had a
chilling effect on the jury and on the courtroom spectators.

Egan’s opening statement was followed by one of Gacy’s
defense lawyers, Robert Motta, who opposed Egan’s statement and insisted that
Gacy’s actions had been completely irrational and impulsive. He had been
insane and no longer in control of his actions. And while most would agree
that only a madman would commit the acts that Gacy was being tried for, the
legal definition of insanity is much harder to prove. Besides that,
prosecutors wanted to make sure that Gacy was kept off the streets --
permanently if possible -- and only a "guilty" verdict would accomplish this.
If Gacy was found to be insane, he would become a ward of the state mental
health system with no time limits on the how long he might be incarcerated. In
many cases, killers were freed when they were deemed mentally stable to
re-enter to society, only to kill again. Prosecutors did not believe that this
type of commitment was just punishment in Gacy’s case.

After the opening statements, the prosecution bought their
first witness to the stand, Marko Butkovich, the father of Gacy’s victim,
Johnny Butkovich. He was the first witness on a list that included the family
and friends of many of the other victims. Many of them broke down on the
stand, recalling their loved ones or recounting their last goodbyes. This
testimony was followed by those who worked for Gacy and who survived sexual or
violent encounters with him. They spoke of his mood swings and how he tried to
trick them into handcuffs, using magic tricks that he perfected as "Pogo the
Clown". The testimony continued for several weeks and included friends and
neighbors of Gacy (legitimately shocked at the various clues to his behavior
they had missed over the years), police officers involved in the investigation
and psychologists who examined Gacy and found him to be sane. Before the state
rested, prosecutors had called some 60 witnesses to the stand.

The defense then took over, never trying to refute the
evidence that established their client as a killer but rather to paint him as
insane and unable to controls his actions. They called friends and family
members of Gacy to the stand, including his mother, who testified that her
husband would often beat Gacy with a leather strap. His sister told of how she
saw Gacy being verbally assaulted by their father on many occasions. Others
who testified for the defense told of how Gacy was a good and generous man,
who helped those in need and who always had a smile and kind word for
everyone. Lillie Grexa even took the stand and spoke of what a wonderful
neighbor he was. However, she also said something that turned out to be
damaging to the case. She refused to say that he was crazy and instead told
the court that she believed him to be a "very brilliant man". One has to
wonder if she knew that her statement would conflict with the defense theory
that Gacy was insane and out of control.

The defense then called Thomas Eliseo, a psychologist who
had conducted interviews with Gacy before the trial. He said that he found
Gacy to be extremely intelligent but believed that he suffered from borderline
schizophrenia. Other medical experts who testified gave similar testimony,
reciting a litany of schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder and
antisocial behavior. They also reported that Gacy’s mental disorder prevented
him from understanding the magnitude of his crimes. In conclusion, each of the
experts found him to be insane at the time of the murders and with the
testimony of the medical experts, the defense rested its case.

Perhaps the most chilling image of Gacy of all….
(Chicago Tribune)

In
their closing statements, both sides emotionally argued their side to the
jury but it only took them two hours of deliberation to come back with a
verdict -- "guilty". Gacy had been convicted of the deaths of 33 young men
and had the notoriety of being convicted of more murders than anyone else
in American history. Gacy received the death penalty and was sent to the
Menard Correctional Center to await execution. After years of appeals, he
was put to death by lethal injection on May 9, 1994. Finally, Gacy’s
terrifying string of crimes could be relegated to memory -- or could it?

By
the spring of 1979, Gacy’s home at 8213 West Summerdale had been reduced
to ruin. Once the remains of the house were cleared away, it became a
muddy, vacant lot and a continuing reminder to the neighborhood of the
monster who had once been in their midst. All vestiges of the house, even
the driveway and barbecue pit, were hauled away but still the onlookers
came, macabre curiosity-seeking tourists who flocked to the once peaceful
residential area. Neighbors hoped that with all traces of the house
removed that the line of cars would finally stopped. The quiet would
return, they believed, once the notoriety of the spot began to fade,
warmer weather came and the grass began to grow back over the open scar
where the house of John Wayne Gacy had once stood.

Unfortunately though, the grass did not return. Even more
than 18 months after the house was destroyed, the land remained strangely
barren. Some weeds had started to grow near the front sidewalk but the back of
the lot, where the house had stood and where the bodies had been buried,
remained completely empty of plant life, despite the fact that there was no
logical reason for the soil to be bare.

Those searching for an explanation suggested that perhaps
the lime that Gacy had dusted the bodies of his victims with had contaminated
the soil in some way but police officers who were involved in the actual
recovery of the bodies disputed this. They insisted that Gacy had never used
enough lime to cause any damage to the lot. The shallow graves where the
bodies lay had been carefully unearthed and then later, a backhoe had been
brought in to dig down 8 to 10 feet to be sure that nothing was missed. The
small amount of lime that had been used would not have survived this and even
so, no lime had been used under the garage or in the backyard -- and yet no
grass would grow there either.

It was as though the evil deeds that had occurred on the spot had left a
supernatural mark on the site, not allowing the grass to grow or for the
events to be forgotten. The mystery of the barren soil lasted for a few more
years and then the lot was sold and a new house was built on the site. The new
owners even went to the trouble of changing the physical address of the
location so that the stigma would be removed. Fortunately for them, their
efforts worked and once the construction was completed, the grass began to
grow once again. The nightmare, it seemed, was finally over.